Local (Town/City/State) GIS Tidbits

[Wabash County, IL Assessor Debbie] Gittings said her office has helped individuals interested in mapping specific locations by charging a fee and providing GIS mapping, which is stamped to note the maps are not officials surveys.

Though the county should likely charge a fee to those wanting to utilize system information for more commercial applications, Gittings said some system information has not yet been double-checked by her office; she said she doesn't want to charge money for what might be a kind of "inferior product" if the information is not correct.

Personnel have been checking GIS mapping information as time has allowed, she indicated.

- Daily Republican Register

Lidar data (processed and raw) is available for all 99 counties in Iowa. (That's a LOT of counites; PA only has 67!) "You can access the information with the proper software from the D.N.R.’s G-I-S library at: www.igsb.uiowa.edu/nrgislibx. The original LiDAR data points for computer-aided design are available via the University of Northern Iowa’s library at: www.geotree.uni.edu."

- Radio Iowa

The Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission of Jamestown, NY has an interesting goal:

Another target for the SPPC - one that has passed from one year to the next - is finding a one-time donor for a proposed GIS work station to be located within the city Department of Development. The station would be available for many departments and also lend itself to the task of neighborhood restoration.

- Post Journal

A consortium of Western states including Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Utah is looking for cloud storage for geographic data. The states issued an RFI last november and input based on responses are due to the state CIOs this week.

- GCN

Local GIS Tidbits

Northwest Arctic Borough (Alaska) Mayor Siikauraq Whiting announced a $1.8 million grant to conduct a 4-year project documenting and mapping subsistence uses and habitats in the region.

This project will also create a place for sharing existing data, maps, traditional knowledge and studies combined in a geographic information system (GIS) database and updated with the latest scientific information. The database will identify important ecological areas and potential resource development areas of the region to protect subsistence.

...

The subsistence mapping project is funded with qualified outer continental shelf oil and gas revenues by the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP), Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, U.S. Department of Interior. Additional funding is provided through the Oak Foundation, an organization that works to make communities stronger.

- The Arctic Sounder

The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced it is suing the owner of Fun Treasure Maps, Ed Zapencki, for ripping off hundreds of small business owners. 

I guess the old mapping scam never gets old. I just wonder if the electronic version has taken off yet?

- Fox 6

GIS analyst Trapolino is

...also a volunteer firefighter in Eudora, he knows when addresses, maps and dispatch communications don't mesh, trouble begins: "I've gone to a trailer park with just a lot number, and that's not enough. You can drive past a home four times and miss it. You can always see smoke and fire, but not an injured man who's down inside." He and GIS director Hanks are helping put DeSoto [County, MS, corrected per comment, was "TN"] on the E-911 map as one of the first counties in the state with a unified, computer-aided dispatch system that utilizes "point addresses" to pinpoint emergencies and better direct first responders. With this system in place, a call to a trailer park would pull up data that includes private road crossings to precisely place the lot number. The two-man GIS office expects the address collection and verification effort, aided by volunteers, to be completed by the end of the year.

- Commercial Appeal

“I cannot possibly relate how efficient this program is,” Sandpoint Planning Director Jeremy Grimm told the Administrative Committee. “The level of added efficiency and time-savings GIS gives us is tremendous."

The big issue for the Bonner County, Idaho is funding for a programmer to help keep the data up to date for the system that went in in 2009.

- Bonner Daily Bee

Maryland Delegate Introduces State Bill to Limit Gov Competition w/ Private Sector

Delegate Michael Hough is proposing a bill to the Maryland General Assembly that "would establish a Council on Efficient Government to receive complaints when the government is competing with the private sector and to recommend to the state how duplicate services could be eliminated. The task force would also seek opportunities for the state to outsource to private business." Among those supporting the proposed legislation is MAPPS. The organization "has written to the state to complain that state universities are offering mapping departments that directly compete with private businesses."

- Frederick News Post

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Update: Local Government GIS Tidbits

"Changes to the U.S. Census maps that increased the Oneida Indian Nation’s reservation from 32 acres to more than 300,000 acres have been reversed, the U.S. Census Bureau confirmed Thursday." However, the Oneida still feel the boundaries should be reinstated.

- Utica Observer-Dispatch

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Local GIS Tidbits

Snyder County [PA] saved more than $40,000 last year by replacing two employees with a GIS company contract, and the commissioners are looking to continue those savings in 2011. They approved on Tuesday a $56,000 contract with GIS Tech Solutions Inc. to provide on-site GIS support services to the county.

- Daily Item

"If you’ll notice, the Town of Wellesley’s website has a new interface and new features. Brian DuPont, GIS manager for the town of Wellesley, designed the site and presented it to the Board of Selectmen at the same Monday meeting." It's very nice. I wonder how many GIS managers could layout a website?

- Wellesley [MA] Patch

Soon four of the five incorporated villages in Meigs County [Ohio] will have portions of its infrastructure digitally mapped as part of the new community based Geographic Information System (GIS) program offered by Buckeye Hills. Racine was the first community to participate in the program and received the services free of charge in exchange for being a “test community” — these “test communities” were a sort of template for the program, including the Village of Syracuse. The Villages of Pomeroy and Middleport have recently signed up for the GIS services though there is now a fee involved for the program — $2,000 plus $500 a year to maintain the service. What is mapped is up to the villages and could be anything from water lines, to storm sewers, to gas lines, to water meters, etc.

- Pomeroy Daily Sentinel

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